Story at a glance
- Lawmakers in Kentucky on Wednesday voted to override Gov. Andy Beshear’s (D) veto on a law barring transgender women and girls from competing in school sports that match their gender identity.
- Beshear vetoed the measure last week, writing in a veto message that he worried how such legislation will impact the mental health and wellbeing of transgender young people in the state.
- Riley Gaines, a University of Kentucky swimmer who recently tied with Lia Thomas for an NCAA championship title, said she believed the law was necessary to protect athletes like herself.
Kentucky lawmakers Wednesday evening voted to override Gov. Andy Beshear’s (D) veto on legislation barring transgender women and girls from competing on sports teams consistent with their gender identity, making Kentucky the 14th state to enact such a measure.
Beshear vetoed the bill, officially titled the “Fairness in Women’s Sports Act,” last week, writing in a veto message that it “most likely” violates the U.S. Constitution and doesn’t solve an existing problem in the state.
“Most importantly, however, the Governor of Utah acknowledged the difficulties faced by our transgender community and the research that shows that the acceptance and connection transgender children experience through school sports can reduce suicidality significantly,” the governor wrote last week. “I share the same concerns.”
The governors of Utah and Indiana last month vetoed similar legislation, though the state legislature in Utah also voted to override Gov. Spencer Cox’s (R) action.
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Under the new Kentucky law, school sports teams in grades six through twelve designated as “girls” teams shall “not be open to members of the male sex,” where sex is defined as that which is listed on a student’s original birth certificate. The law mandates a similar ban be put in place at public and private Kentucky colleges that are “a member of a national intercollegiate athletic association.”
By including collegiate athletics, the law runs afoul of NCAA rules, threatening Kentucky’s participation in NCAA sports and championship events. That may also set the law up to be challenged for violating Title IX – which prohibits discrimination based on sex or gender identity – just as similar laws in West Virginia and Idaho have been.
LGBTQ+ advocates on Wednesday pushed back against the state legislature’s decision to override the governor’s veto, claiming the move had little to do with protecting or improving women’s athletics.
“It isn’t necessary to understand what it means to be transgender in order to understand that kids want to be able to play school sports on a team where they can be included and celebrated for being who they really are,” Human Rights Campaign State Legislative Director and Senior Counsel Cathryn Oakley said in a statement. “On the other hand, the Kentucky General Assembly chose to politicize these kids, to isolate them, to prevent them from being included and to prevent them from being able to play with their friends – and all without addressing the actual challenges facing women’s sports programs, like chronic underfunding.”
Sam Ames, the director of advocacy and government affairs at the LGBTQ+ youth suicide prevention and crisis intervention group The Trevor Project, echoed Beshear’s claim that the measure does not solve an actual problem in Kentucky.
State legislators through multiple readings of the legislation were unable to cite any specific examples of any Kentucky students being harmed by the inclusion of transgender girls in girls’ sports.
“This bill claimed to solve a problem of ‘fairness’ in school sports in Kentucky that didn’t exist, but its negative impacts on the mental health and well-being of trans and nonbinary youth — young people who already face disproportionate rates of bullying, depression, and suicide — are very real,” Ames said in a statement.
Speaking to media following the legislature’s vote, state Sen. Robby Mills (R), who sponsored the bill, argued to the contrary, telling reporters that the measure was needed to “preserve the integrity of women’s sports in Kentucky.”
Following Mills, Riley Gaines, a University of Kentucky swimmer who recently tied for fifth place with Lia Thomas, who is transgender, for an NCAA title last month, agreed that the law was necessary.
“I want to explicitly say there is no ill will toward Lia Thomas or any transgender athlete,” she said, though later added that “biological males should not be competing against women” – a term often used by anti-transgender activists to imply that transgender women and girls are not who they say they are.
Gaines accused the NCAA of turning its back on Title IX by allowing Thomas and other trans athletes to compete, alleging that she and other women have been treated unfairly by the athletic association.
“They put all female athletes on the back burner to protect such a small minority of people and to save face in hopes of not receiving backlash,” she said, adding that a “vast majority” of athletes share her concerns but are afraid to speak out.
Mills did not say whether he expects pushback from the NCAA, but said he hopes the athletic association will use the law as a template for how to proceed.
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